Fossils of Neanderthal DNA clump in human genome

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January 29, 2014

Photo: Frank Franklin II, STF

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FILE - This Jan. 8, 2003 file photo shows a reconstructed Neanderthal skeleton, right, and a modern human version of a skeleton, left, on display at the Museum of Natural History in New York. Next time you call someone a Neanderthal, better look in a mirror. Much of the genes that help determine most peopleâs skin and hair are much more Neanderthal than not, according to two new studies that look at the DNA fossils hidden in the modern human genome. Scientists isolated the parts of the non-African modern human genetic blueprint that still contain Neanderthal remnants. Barely more than 1 percent comes from 50,000 years ago when modern humans leaving Africa mated with the soon-to-be-extinct Neanderthals. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File) less

FILE - This Jan. 8, 2003 file photo shows a reconstructed Neanderthal skeleton, right, and a modern human version of a skeleton, left, on display at the Museum of Natural History in New York. Next time you call ... more

Photo: Frank Franklin II, STF

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Neanderthal DNA fossils hidden in the modern human genome can help determine many people's skin and hair characteristics, two studies report.

Neanderthal DNA fossils hidden in the modern human genome can help determine many people's skin and hair characteristics, two studies report.

Photo: HEINZ DUCKLAU, STF

Fossils of Neanderthal DNA clump in human genome

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WASHINGTON - Next time you call someone a Neanderthal, better look in a mirror. Many of the genes that help determine most people's skin and hair are more Neanderthal than not, according to two new studies that look at the DNA fossils hidden in the modern human genome.

About 50,000 years ago, modern day humans migrated out of Africa north to Europe and East Asia and met up with furrow-browed Neanderthals that had been in the colder climates for more than 100,000 years. Some of the two species mated. And then the Neanderthals died off as a species - except for what's left inside of us.

Scientists isolated the parts of the modern human genetic blueprint that still contain Neanderthal remnants. Overall, it's barely more than 1 percent, said two studies released Wednesday in the journals Nature and Science.

However, in some places, such as the DNA related to the skin, the genetic instructions are as much as 70 percent Neanderthal and in other places there's virtually nothing from the species that's often portrayed as brutish cavemen.

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The difference between where Neanderthal DNA is plentiful and where it's absent may help scientists understand what in our genome "makes humans human," said University of Washington genome scientist Joshua Akey, lead author of the paper in Science.

The studies mostly examined the genomes of people whose ancestors left Africa at some point. People whose ancestors have all stayed in Africa have almost no Neanderthal DNA because there was little interbreeding.

Harvard researcher Sriram Sankararaman, the lead author of the Nature study, said the place where Neanderthal DNA seemed to have the most influence in the modern human genome has to do with skin and hair. Akey said those instructions are as much as 70 percent Neanderthal.

"We're more Neanderthal than not in those genes," Akey said.

However, Sankararaman cautions that scientists don't yet know just what the Neanderthal DNA dictates in our skin and hair.

Sarah Tishkoff, a professor of genetics and biology at the University of Pennsylvania who was not part of either study, theorized that the Neanderthal DNA probably helped the darker humans out of Africa cope with the cooler less bright north. Living in the cooler Europe means less ultraviolet light and less vitamin D from the sun. Darker skin blocks more of those needed rays, so lighter skin is more advantageous in the north and it seems that humans adopted that Neanderthal adaptation, she said.